Oven doors found in residential and commercial settings are typically hinged at the bottom and provided with a handle at the top so that the cook grasps the handle and pulls the oven door forward and downward into the open position. The oven door thus rotates about the bottom, hinged position and in the open position extends almost completely forward. The user of the oven must stand a long distance away from the cooking area of the oven in order to place food into and remove food from the cooking area. Further, if the interior surface of the oven door is hot, this hot surface presents a safety risk to the user and other people and animals in the vicinity of the oven. Another concern with oven doors lies in the layout of a typical kitchen. Some kitchens, for example those in apartments or those that are small, have limited space and an open oven door may interfere with the opening of doors of cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. Handicapped people, such as those in wheelchairs, may not be able to maneuver their assistance device in front of the oven and open the oven door because the presence of the person or assistance device would interfere with the opening oven door due to its outward movement.
One known oven door design that attempted to correct problems associated with oven doors involved the use of a pivoting and sliding connection. Here, the oven door was moved from the closed position to the open position by first pivoting the oven door about its bottom in the conventional manner. Once moved into the open position, the oven door was then slid in a linear direction into the oven. This arrangement removed most of the oven door from view and allowed the cook to stand closer to the cooking area when checking on food located in the oven or when putting food into or removing food out of the oven. Although capable of hiding an oven door when open, such design would still be difficult for people having an assistance device such as a cane or wheel chair to open due to the outward movement of the oven door during opening. Further, such an oven door design may strike or otherwise interfere with other open doors on appliances or cabinets in the kitchen.
Another oven door design features an automatic opening oven door. The oven door is made of a series of sections that ride along a track. The cook may press a button and a motor will actuate to move the sections of the oven door along the track so that they are moved into the body of the oven. Although capable of opening and closing an oven door, this design is expensive and requires a significant number of mechanical and electrical parts and is thus not a robust design. Further, since the oven door is made of a number of sections it exhibits areas of heat loss due to gaps between the sections. This heat loss may become worse over time and can increase the cost of operating the oven, reduce the effectiveness food is cooked, and undesirably heat up the kitchen. As such, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the invention.